


serendipity

by MaddieandChimney



Series: Meet Cutes [12]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:40:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27435967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieandChimney/pseuds/MaddieandChimney
Summary: It's weird being a stranger at her brother's wedding, having never met his husband before but Buck has a plan to make sure his sister has another reason to leave Hershey and move to LA.
Relationships: Evan “Buck” Buckley & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han
Series: Meet Cutes [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1927492
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39
Collections: 9-1-1 Tales





	serendipity

It’s a little strange, being at her brother’s wedding considering she’s never even met the other groom or anyone else. But she can still appreciate the beauty of it all, although she wishes she could have gotten to know the man who was now married to her little brother better. Eddie seems good and he looks at Buck as though he’s the luckiest man in the world and really, that’s all she could ask for. She still has to remind herself that not every man is Doug and not every marriage is destined to end the way hers did.

Still, it’s been over ten years since the last Buckley wedding and she has to admit that Buck’s wedding was a lot more enjoyable than hers had been. It was a small, intimate event, surrounded by their family and friends, the two of them spending the entire day lost in each other’s eyes anyway, so Maddie isn’t entirely convinced they’d have noticed if no one turned up. She’s just grateful for the invite, even if she feels out of place and completely alone in a room full of people who seem to know each other.

Maddie had been surprised to get the invite in the first place; she and Buck had been close growing up but her marriage had built a wall between them and eventually, she’d stopped replying to his texts and stopped answering his calls for reasons she wasn’t entirely he would ever understand. He’d still been the first person she had called after three years of radio silence on her end when her husband had died. He’d still been there for her despite how hurt he was that she hadn’t told him the truth, so flying to LA to be his one and only family member at his wedding was the least she felt she owed him.

At least it’s nice to find some comfort in the fact he has a family now and it’s no longer just the two of them. He has a son and a husband and a lot of people who clearly adore the three of them and now she doesn’t have to worry about him being on his own, thousands of miles from the place he had once called home. She expects this is home for him now though, in the arms of the man he loves. His blue eyes bright and his cheeks flushed throughout the day, she can’t help but stare at him in complete awe because this wasn’t the terrified fifteen year old boy who had nervously told her that he thought he was bi-sexual. This was a confident, twenty-eight-year-old man who didn’t care what anyone else thought because he was happy.

“You look deep in thought.” Maddie finds her eyes moving from the two men as they walk to their own seats, trying not to think about how she should be sitting proudly next to her little brother as a pang of pain rushes through her and she bites down on her lip. It’s difficult not to be bitter or upset when she watches an older woman take the seat she should probably be occupying before she finally turns to the source of the voice.

Brown eyes linger for perhaps a little too long on the tight-fitting blue suit he’s wearing before he sits down and she allows her gaze to settle on his face. He’s grinning at her and she can’t help but blush when she takes his extended hand in her own and shakes it, her gaze settling on the pink scar in the middle of his forehead and, alongside the name tag carefully placed next to her own, deducts correctly that this is the famous Chimney her brother had told her about. “I’m Howie—or Chimney.” He confirms, and his smile is bright and she’s sure she could get lost in those eyes (and she’s pretty certain she does for a minute until she realises her eyes have lingered too long and she’s forcing herself to look at her own place card instead).

She gestures towards the name, “Maddie.” The Buckley is left unspoken, a little embarrassed that she’s not sitting next to her brother but if Chimney is thinking that, he doesn’t show it. And suddenly, her eyes are lingering on his face again before she takes a breath. “You work with Buck?”

She already knows the answer but she’s hoping to strike up her first conversation with someone other than her brother and brother-in-law for the day and the man sitting next to her has a kind face and a smile so bright, it’s the most relaxed she’s felt since her plane landed barely twenty-four hours before. “And Eddie, yeah.” When he stops talking, she feels her heart sinking, her grip tightening on her navy blue dress as she scrambles through her mind to find something, _anything_ else to say in an attempt to not feel like such a lonely loser. “You know, I’ve been at the 118 for twelve years now and this is my first actual team wedding.” She wants to hug him for not walking away and finding someone he actually knows and who could probably hold a conversation.

It’s with a laugh that she nods her head, “I’m a nurse, so I’ve probably been to at least a dozen team weddings. This was definitely the prettiest though,” She looks around at the beautifully decorated garden, admiring the fairy lights so elegantly strung above their heads before she turns her attention back to the man. “and it’s my brother’s wedding so I’m probably bias.”

“Ah, perhaps.” He winks at her and it shouldn’t be enough to cause her heart to flutter the way it does but there she is, biting down on her lip when she lets out a giggle. “Buck talks about you a lot,” That takes her by surprise, “but he uh—never mentioned how beautiful you are.” and if she was surprised before, she has no idea what she’s feeling right then when she’s certain that he’s flirting (or at least trying) with her.

Two can play at that game. Maddie tilts her head to the side, a grin on her face when she makes a point of looking him up and down, “He’s told me a lot about you, too but he definitely never told me how justified you were in winning that calendar competition.” It’s his turn for his cheeks to flush, the smug smirk on his face seconds before quickly dropped and replaced with a shy smile until he’s reaching forward for her empty wine glass.

“I’ll top that up for you.”

“It’s an open bar.” She’s quick to point out, moving to stand up when he does because she’s partly worried he’ll get distracted and forget all about Buck’s sister he’s probably keeping company out of pity and partly because she wants to listen to him and talk to him for a little longer before he does inevitably find people to hang out with who he knows.

“You got me there.” Chimney is winking at her again and her smile only grows, the laugh coming easily and loudly. They’ve barely strung a few sentences together and she’s already entirely smitten and probably not at all being subtle about it. “Did Buck tell you how I got my scar? The ladies love that story.”

Her brother absolutely has but she shakes her head anyway, eager to hear it from his lips instead as the two of them walk towards the bar, her eyes entirely focused on him as he talks animatedly.

They’re too caught up in each other to notice Buck looking at them, a grin on his face as he turns to his husband of barely one hour, “Told you my plan would work, they’re perfect for each other.” Eddie’s gaze follows his own, settling on the two across the room, Chimney propped up against the bar and Maddie staring up at him with her body pressed a little too closely to his considering there was barely any crowd around them. It’s not hard to miss the way she hasn’t moved her eyes from his as he talks with far too much excitement, her head thrown back in a laugh that brightens up their colleague’s face because no one finds Chimney _that_ funny.

“Never doubted you for a second, Mr Buckley-Diaz.”


End file.
